While I was watching The Avengers final hour all I could think about was “holy hell, New York is getting torn apart. Look at all the buildings that are getting their walls blown off!” And then I realized that whoever had to pay was going to pay a lot of money.

But how much money? The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Kinetic Analysis Corporation, which is one of the leading disaster cost prediction and assessment firms in the country to find out.

They estimated that the Chitauri, with their giant snake robots and sky gliders of destruction, did $160 billion damage to Manhattan, which is more than 9/11′s $83 billion, Hurricane Katrina’s $90 billion and Japanese tsunami’s $122 billion.

The cost breaks down like this: $60 – $70 billion for pure physical destruction on the city, $90 billion clean-up cost, and a couple more billion added on for the loss of lives.

Most of the damage to buildings were done on the higher floors, which would require extensive work and money. There’s always a chance of a building being so damaged that it could collapse and therefore hurt the subway system below the city. In fact, the destruction of Grand Central Station may have been the worst of the lot. Kinetic recommends surveys to assess the damage to the underpinning of the city. You know, electrical and subway systems and that kind of stuff.

Who would pay? That’s far more complicated. SHIELD is a government agency so they’re likely to be protected. The Avengers (The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor) are a part of SHIELD so they likely wouldn’t front the bill either, unless they wanted to donate and help out in some way.

Kinetic points out that most insurance policies have special provisions for acts of war, terrorism and civil unrest. The invasion of the Chitauri could fall under all three of these. Oh, and Thor and Loki are considered gods in some cultures so you could label it as an Act of God too, though Kinetic points out that would be under heavy debate.

I’m sure that it’s a small price to pay though when you consider the alternative was enslavement to a crazy Norse god. [The Hollywood Reporter]

destruction, the avengers